Magic Maze Scenarios

This initiation campaign consists of seven scenarios that will gradually introduce you to the basic rules of the game. When you fail a scenario, you can either try again or skip to the next one.

Scenario 1: Discovery

Shuffle Mall tiles 2 - 9, and place tile 1 A-side-up.

Explore the shopping mall, steal the items, then flee through the only exit (purple). Once a Hero pawn has fled through the exit, place that Hero pawn at the right place on the Theft tile.

Special Exception

If you wish, for this introductory scenario, you are allowed to talk as much as you want, throughout the entire game. This may help you understand the game concepts.

Remember The Essentials

Here are some important rules to keep in mind before starting the game:

Players do not "take turns" and you do not "play" or discard the Action tiles when you use their effects. You just perform the action(s) that your Action tile allows you to do, as many times as you wish, at the moments that you deem appropriate.

In order to explore a passage to an unexplored tile, a Hero pawn must be on an Exploration space of its own colour. After the passage has been explored, any hero can pass through in both ways.

Hero pawns can neither pass through walls nor other heroes. There can never be two Hero pawns on the same space.

The Use a Vortex action allows you to move the Hero pawns from anywhere to any Vortex space of that hero's colour.

When all four Hero pawns are standing on the Item spaces of their respective colours, turn the Theft tile over and run for the exit!

You are not allowed to use the Vortex system during your escape (after

The plan is simple: explore, steal the four items, run to the exit!

Scenario 2: Several Exits

Shuffle Mall tiles 2 - 12, and place tile 1 A-side-up.

New Permanent Rule

Each Hero pawn must escape through the exit of its own colour.

Scenario 3: Pass Your Action Tile

New Permanent Rule (2 Players Or More)

Every time the sand timer is flipped, the players pass their Action tile to the player on their left. Make sure the North arrow on the Action tiles stays oriented in the same direction as the one on the starting tile.

Scenario 4: Dwarf & Elf Special Abilities

New Permanent Rule

The Dwarf (orange Hero pawn) is the only one who is able to move through the small passages in the orange walls.

New Permanent Rule

When you use The Elf (green Hero pawn) to explore a new tile, all players are allowed to communicate, following the same rules as when the sand timer is flipped. The LoudSpeaker symbol is there to remind you.

Scenario 5: Mage Special Ability

Shuffle Mall tiles 2 - 14, place tile 15 on top of them, place tile 1 B-side-up, and follow all of the previous permanent rules.

New Permanent Rule

When The Mage (purple Hero pawn) is standing on a Crystal Ball space, the player who has the Explore action may add up to two new tiles to the mall, at valid positions (connected to unused Exploration spaces, but of any colour); you are allowed to connect the second tile to the first one placed this way.

That exploration does not need to take place immediately, it can be done later, provided that The Mage is still on the Crystal Ball space. Once the Crystal Ball space has been used (if one or two tiles have been added to the mall that way), place an Out of Order token on it, beneath the Mage pawn.

If a Hero pawn other than the purple one moves onto a Crystal Ball space, nothing happens.

Scenario 6: Barbarian Special Ability

In this scenario, there are 2 Security Cameras in the deck of Mall tiles.

All the spaces on a tile that contains a Security Camera are yellow, in order to make them easier to spot.

New Permanent Rule

If two or more Security Camera are functional (revealed and not covered by an Out of Order token), you are not allowed to move any Hero pawn onto any Sand Timer space. To disable a Security Camera, the Barbarian (yellow Hero pawn) must move onto it. Then, place an Out of Order token onto it, beneath The Barbarian.

This means that once the first camera is revealed, you must be careful: if other cameras are revealed before you disable the first camera, you will be unable to flip the sand timer until you disable all but one of the cameras!

If a Hero pawn other than the yellow one moves onto a Security Camera space, nothing happens.

Scenario 7: Maximum Surveillance

This scenario doesn't add any new rules, but there are now 4 Security Camera spaces in the deck of Mall tiles. You must be extra, extra careful once a Security Camera space appears.

Now that you know all the rules of Magic Maze, you are ready to face challenges worthy of your abilities! Here is a series of scenarios at different difficulty levels.

Each of them appears on the score sheet (The Great Book of Challenges) on its own line with a series of increasingly difficult levels (involving more and more Mall tiles).

Fill out that sheet as you play, by writing the names of the people, who successfully took the challenge, in the corresponding scenario box. A small box on the right of each also allows you to record the number of Sand Timer spaces you used (the fewer the better!). You are free to choose for each scenario whether to use the A or B side of the starting tile (tile 1). The back of the score sheet contains blank title boxes so you can create your own scenarios.

Scenario 8: Divination

The Mall tile deck is placed face up, so you can always see the upcoming tile that will be added to the mall.

Scenario 9: Follow The Leader

During the setup, use the Action tiles corresponding to a game with one player fewer; give one of them to each player, except one player, who doesn't get any.

Instead, that player is the only one allowed to use the "Do Something!" pawn.

Note: This scenario allows 9 players to play!

Scenario 10: Trick The Guards

In order to deceive the guards, the heroes must steal an item that's not theirs, then escape through an exit that's not theirs. Each exit can only be taken by one hero; therefore, leave the Hero pawns on them.

Scenario 11: Rearrangement Mode

The walls never stop moving. Before the items are stolen, each time the sand timer is flipped, discard two revealed tiles that were already placed in the shopping mall.

In order to be able to discard a tile, it must meet the following requirements:

It must have no Hero pawns and no Out of Order tokens on it.

Tile 1 can never be removed from the mall.

After the tile is discarded, it must still be possible to get everywhere in the shopping mall without using the Vortex spaces (i.e. so you can escape).

If you cannot remove two tiles without infringing upon these conditions, you lose the game.

Tuck the two discarded tiles face down under the deck. If the deck was already exhausted, these two tiles become the new deck.

Scenario 12: Gestures Only

When you are allowed to communicate, you can only communicate with gestures: you can never use language!

Scenario 13: Multidimensional Mall

The shopping center occupies two planes of existence.

Setup: place the orange and green Hero pawns on tile 1 as usual. Place tile 3 on the table a little farther away, and place the yellow and purple Hero pawns anywhere on it. These two tiles represent the two dimensions that can never be connected after exploring a new tile (push them farther away if necessary).

The Mall tile deck is placed face up so you can always see the upcoming tile that will be added to the mall.

In order to distract the guards, the four Hero pawns can never be in the same dimension all at the same time. A Hero pawn can only travel between the dimensions with the Use a Vortex action, moving from a Vortex space of its color in the dimension where it is to a Vortex space of its color in the other dimension.

This is the only valid way to use a vortex during this scenario.

Caution: if you place the tiles badly during the game, you may not be able to escape the mall. Do not forget that the Vortex system is disabled after the theft has occurred!

Scenario 14: No Communication

No communication is allowed at all, at any time. You are still allowed to stare intensely at an other player and to use the "Do Something!" pawn.

Scenario 15: You Have Beautiful Eyes

No communication is allowed at all, at any time, and you are not allowed to use the "Do Something!" pawn. You can still stare at another player… even more intensely.

Scenario 16: Vortex Out Of Service

The entire Vortex system is out of service during the whole game. Therefore, you can never use the Use a Vortex action.

Scenario 17: Groups Forbidden

The guards are suspicious of groups of people: during the game, two or more Hero pawns can never be on the same Mall tile, except for tile 1, where any number of Hero pawns can stand simultaneously. Do not remove the Hero pawns from the board once they reach their exit; that way, they still prevent other Hero pawns from entering that tile.

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